JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On this day five years ago, 17 students and staffers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were killed in one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings. Following the tragedy, Florida enacted a red flag law to keep students safe.
Florida’s red flag law enables the state court to remove firearms from people considered a threat to themselves or others.
RELATED: Florida’s red flag law used nearly 9,000 times to date, 254 times in Duval
Action News Jax checked with the State Courts Administrator’s office to see how often Florida’s red flag law was used in northeast Florida since it was implemented in 2018.
We searched for total orders granting petitions for risk protection – or judges removing firearms from people considered a threat to themselves or others.
Duval County far outpaced the surrounding counties with 285 law enforcement requests granted between March 2018 and last December. Meanwhile, Clay County had only 5 given during that period; Nassau County had 21; and St. Johns County had 15.
While the state has implemented red flag laws to keep students safe, the Duval County School District has taken its own measures internally to ensure the safety of its children.
“Every threat, no matter how minor it may seem, we don’t take it as a joke, we don’t take it as ‘we were just playing’, we take it seriously,” says Chief Greg Burton, Executive Director of DCPS Police. “We have police officers or guardians in every school and they are to be there from bell to bell of the school day.”
Burton also outlined the extensive training that security personnel in Duval County schools undergo in order to ensure the district’s safety.
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